Skip to main content

Backyard Rink 2.0

The old Coronavirus got us this week. Despite being sick things still needed to get done. 

Still botheringhis sick dad.

As you can see, Theo likes to be a pill from time to time.

Meadow is always finding ways to lure Pecan into her room. 

The weather this week looked like winter so we needed to get our ice rink built. 

This year we decided to expand it over the sidewalk. 

It was a wee bit small for us adults last year.

Theo helped at times. 


First we just had to figure out what we could build with the lumber we had. We had enough for the base wall at least.

Even Meadow joined us outside for a bit. 


I'd like to move this raised bed back a couple of feet next year to simplify the geometry.

Brooke lent a hand when I needed the help.

We use a DIY Iron Sleek setup. 2 x 12s and these metal brackets are all you need if your slope isn't too extreme.

I had to fill in some low spots with dirt on the part that went over the middle garden.

I had to wait a day or so to hammer in these support brackets. Our garage power runs under this area and through the middle garden.

Day one in the books.


I did a little research and bought this underground cable tester. For this use you plug in the emitter, on the right, into an outlet and then it sends a signal through the wire. The receiver, on the left, detects that signal. Slick.

This is going to be so awesome. Let's hope we get an actual winter this year. 

If we didn't have a few trees, we'd probably go even wider.

Theo told me he wanted to learn to use the sewing machine. 

We started with a simple project of a pillow. 

Nice job Theo!

Look at these crafty little kids.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Backcountry Camping with Kids in Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Day 1  Back in May I stumbled upon Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I had no idea there was a National Park in North Dakota and that it was the northern end of the Badlands. Usually our summer vacations coincide with Scott's work trips. Since he didn't have any this summer I thought we should take advantage of actually taking a vacation. What, my workcations are always classics? I suppose a second real vacation this year wouldn't hurt. We definitely have more time than normal. As long as we took Covid-19  precautions and avoided people. We finally settled on a time to go. Blake joined us so we borrowed our dad's van so we could ride together. Scott had just driven from Michigan the day before. Blake had met my parents in Wisconsin to get the van and then drove from Duluth to pick us up. I offered to drive since I literally only drive twice a month.  I was still pretty tired from a long drive home. Since we were near Fergus Falls we had to stop by the abandoned state ho...

A Park Rapids-Walker Workcation

We were going to just go overnight on Saturday with Scott for a work trip. With a snowstorm in the forecast we left right after the kids were done with school. Meadow is still chugging away at her rug hooking.    We stopped at the China Star buffet near St Cloud. They really upgraded the interior since we were here last.  Don't worry about me. Just noshing on the green beans. Can a guy get more veggies in these buffets? We ended up changing hotels and staying in Walker at the... Walker Hotel . The room was a bit old fashioned and TV a wee one. But the pool had a slide, so that's a win. Right? The falling snow outside the pool window made it slightly magical.  Meadow got Theo's hair dry after we got ready to take a drive down to Park Rapids. It doesn't look that bad, but it was nerve wrecking driving. But I do have to say that the Escape PHEV did pretty well in the conditions. The slippery mode for snow and rain kind of rules even if we don't have 4WD. We tagged alon...

Brooke's Birthday Fish Fry and Many Minneapolis Walks

My actual birthday happened to be on the first Friday of Lent. You know what that means, church fish fry!  One of our favorites is at St Albert the Great in south Minneapolis. Usually we have to wait for a little while up in the sanctuary, but we got downstairs to the hall super quick. All the gray hairs were out for the night. Can't blame them. The kids usually opt for spaghetti.  The best part about this place is you get to pick two desserts.  They actually let you have as many you wanted this year. In past they had two tickets per person, but not this year! The same gregarious priest as always was keeping the crowd entertained. I swear he wasn't back last year, but it was good to see him back doing his best. Theo got chosen to pick the winning numbers for the 50/50 raffle. The priest gave us a hard time for not getting a raffle ticket. Don't worry about me. Just daydreaming about a back screen porch like this. I made Brookie a brookie brownie. Could've used more brow...